Results of a single blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial to study the effect of intravenous L-carnitine supplementation on health-related quality of life in Indian patients on maintenance hemodialysis

What Was Tested

Researchers studied L-Carnitine in this randomized controlled trial publication.

To study the effect of L-carnitine supplementation on QoL of Indian patients on MHD.

Why It Was Studied

Carnitine insufficiency is responsible for various co-morbid conditions in maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) patients.

Depending on normality of data, unpaired T test or Mann Whitney U test was used for comparison of change (8 weeks-baseline) in SF36 scores and laboratory parameters observed in the two groups.

Who Took Part

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

This was a single (patient) blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial conducted on patients on MHD attending hemodialysis unit of the study center.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, single-blind and placebo-controlled study.

Because people in this L-Carnitine study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

In this single-blind L-Carnitine study one party knew the assignments and the other did not.

Some participants received a placebo instead of L-Carnitine, giving a reference point.

The timeline in the abstract includes 8 weeks.

SF36 (Short Form with 36 questions) score for QoL, laboratory investigations and dialysis related symptoms were recorded at baseline and after 8 weeks.

What Was Measured

Depending on normality of data, unpaired T test or Mann Whitney U test was used for comparison of change (8 weeks-baseline) in SF36 scores and laboratory parameters observed in the two groups.

The subject headings attached to it are Carnitine, Dietary Supplements, India, Kidney Failure, Chronic, Muscle Cramp, Muscle Weakness and Quality of Life.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, single-blind and placebo-controlled study of L-Carnitine over 8 weeks.

Its findings take up roughly 4 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2006 (Indian journal of medical sciences), a journal based in India.

More context: the L-Carnitine compound page, all human trials.